The problem with battlefield re-enactments is that they all seem to take place about the same time of year as the orginal battle. There were very few winter offensives in WWI. In the early December time frame, I only found two battles.

One The Battle of Givenchy is in the Pas-de-Calis region, not far from the Chunnel entrance on the French Side.

These were major engagements. This certainly doesn't mean some local area cannot celebrate some minor battle or skirmish that took place in their town. The comment about the difficult re-enactment just might be a reference to the worst winter in Europe referenced by Apskip, and not to the actual difficulty of the re-enactment

With more information appearing that seems to point to Liverpool/England for the Beatle spoiler, I think it is possible that BVM used the EuroStar/Chunnel to hype the show/do something new and get teams from England to the re-enactment to Paris for departure to Seychelles.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

The problem with battlefield re-enactments is that they all seem to take place about the same time of year as the orginal battle. There were very few winter offensives in WWI. In the early December time frame, I only found two battles.

One The Battle of Givenchy is in the Pas-de-Calis region, not far from the Chunnel entrance on the French Side.

These were major engagements. This certainly doesn't mean some local area cannot celebrate some minor battle or skirmish that took place in their town. The comment about the difficult re-enactment just might be a reference to the worst winter in Europe referenced by Apskip, and not to the actual difficulty of the re-enactment

With more information appearing that seems to point to Liverpool for the Beatle spoiler, I think it is possible that BVM used the EuroStar/Chunnel to hype the show/do something new and get teams from England to the re-enactment to Paris for departure to Seychelles.

It's effective money saving: buses in South America for 2 legs and trains in Europe for two legs. It's also much better than bunching on airlines for short-haul flights. Finally, it recalls TAR 3.Didn't somebody say it's not cheap to go to the Seychelles?

Dandrew were amusing, made the Moscow legs unique in ways I never imagined.

When I saw the video, I have a new appreciation for the probability of Fort de Seclin being the right place. It could well be that place, as few places in France are a permanent and living museum. I think here are some great ideas for tasks:

1. Dressing up as soldiers and marching (playing the British, French or German soldiers does not look difficult and I think the probability of another Andrew/Dan marching trials/tribulations is low)2. Find an object in that museum (I am recalling Amazing Race Asia 3 - the Miniatures Museum in Taipei)3. Dig trenches

I am honoring your find with a map of the south side of the greater Lille area(see lowest pane) showing Seclin about 10 miles south of the center of Lille, just west of Route National E17/A1. Look to the left of the circled H. That is maybe a 20 minute drive from the train station to Seclin. With left-hand drive like in the U.S. and signage that is eminently readable there is no reason why AR16 teams could not go to self-drive vehicles which they then take on to Charles de Gaulle airport.

That would also work well with the Eurostar from UK to Lille... very little driving needed.

here is an example of possible trains on an arbitrary day...

« Last Edit: January 23, 2010, 08:39:56 PM by georgiapeach »

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Fort de Seclin looks like the perfect TAR location. A great location for a detour and pit stop. According to their webite, they are closed for winter a few day after the re-enactments commemorating the end of WWI in Nov. They cater and have dining facilities, meeting rooms for teams to sleep in and easy for site security. They already have their own re-enactment actors on staff. A perfect TAR place. If they didn't use it, they sure should have!

As Apskip mentioned, it is very easy to drive from the fort to CDG for flights to the Seychelles. It is also very easy to take the TGV to CDG as well from Lille or Lens. There is a TGV stop right under the terminal at CDG. Fort de Seclin is about 10 minute taxi ride to the Lille airport too.

I posed a suggestion a few days back about perhaps both Hamburg and Liverpool coming into play. The Germany spoiler came from a newspaper article in Barichole attributed to the TAR production crew; and I'm still thinking Germany may play a role in there somehow.

I think they are going to Liverpool, England. The World War I battle reenactment is in France. Do they even visit Germany this season?

It's either Germany or England: can't have both.Germany's been visited recently, so I would like to think TAR 16 goes to England and have two legs there. From Hamburg, it's hard to get to Lille w/o passing through Belgium. Of course, they may have also gone to Strasbourg.

What's surprising is that nobody saw the racers in Europe. They've gotten better at hiding...

Germany has never been anything more than a media mention, in a foreign language paper. We don't know where that info came from or how to intrepret it...it could have been as simple as production connecting thru Germany, or someone misinterpreting something they heard.

If we have England, and I personally think there is no doubt...then we don't have Germany. 8 countries.

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

I doubt it will be a final 4 but I think that one of them was eliminated and took the same flight with the final 3

Or there could be a surprise twist that has one of the 4 teams eliminated in the US. It could be very unexpected. We're watching Episode 11 (on the basis of a 12 episode season), and they went through all of the 3 NE episodes (or 2 NE + 1 TBC), and you'd think that this episode is obviously a Philimination.

Then Phil saves that team, and everyone watching is in shock. Then, it's finale time. Everyone is trying to get back to the US and to the Finish line. Somewhere in the middle of the episode, there's a mid-leg Philimination. Then they're down to 3 teams, all of which will race to the Finish Mat.

Probably won't happen, although I might reconsider the possibility of the above occurring, if we're lucky enough to get a 2-hr finale (with a single leg stretched out in the form of the AR 6-9 premieres).

I could see this happening, even if there wasn't a two-hour finale. The producers seem to be all about surprises lately in an effort to keep things fresh. This could be the sequel to the Starting Line elimination we saw in TAR 15.

Except we already know one decoy team arrived on the same flight with the racers...remember??

4 teams on the last flight is not unexpected.

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

With some production people, same flight as the teams. Only flight from Shanghai in that time frame.

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan